Moldova

Dazed Giant Squid Wash Up On California Beach After Earthquake

July 14, 2009

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An earthquake wasn’t the only shock San Diego residents felt Saturday morning when dozens of dazed giant squid washed up on La Jolla’s sandy shores.

The sea creatures measured up to four feet long and weighed around 40 pounds, appeared on the beach around 8:30 a.m. Pacific time — about an hour after a magnitude 4.0 earthquake shook the San Diego suburb.

The earthquake was centered about 19 miles out to sea. It’s still unclear whether it was the earthquake or the something lese that drove the huge Humboldt squid onto the beach.

A spokesman for Scripps Institution of Oceanography said at this point they do not see a connection between the squid and the earthquake, but plan to look into it.

The La Jolla Light's website reports that divers, Cynthia Velazquez and Roger Uzun of San Diego, armed with bright floodlights and a video camera, went searching for squid about 8:30 p.m. in 30-foot-deep water off La Jolla Shores on July 10.

"They were already there waiting for us," said Velazquez, a veteran diver with extensive experience locally and in Mexico's Sea of Cortez. "At first there were about four of them, 4- to 5-feet long, and later there were probably like 10. They were very curious. They came right up to us: inches away from our faces," writes newspaper La Jolla Light.

NBC Video; Photo: Brian J. Skerry (National Geographic)